Canucks SixPack: Hamhuis is good with new jaw + Sbisa&#039;s a thug in loss

DH Vancouver StaffFeb 06, 2016 11:59 pm

Fans weren’t celebrating in the streets when Jim Benning said he was in wait and see mode four days ago.

Asked what he’s going to do with Radim Vrbata and Dan Hamhuis with the trade deadline approaching, Benning said:

“We want to see where our team is the next 2 or 3 weeks. We’re going to be healthy for the first time. We want to see where we’re at in the standings and from there we’ll decide what we’re going to do with our UFA’s at the deadline.”

Since he said this on Tuesday, Vancouver lost 2-1 to Columbus and Saturday’s 4-1 game to Calgary – to two of the worst teams in the NHL.

4. Welcome back Hammer

A couple of stomach-churning pictures of the damage that puck did to his upper jaw:

Dr. Peter Lennox, the plastic surgeon who fixed Hamhuis up:

“His palate was just broken into a whole bunch of peices and I didn’t count the fractures. We didn’t want to look at the palate, I just wanted to hold it in place and let it heal that way.

And then his alviolis, which is the part of your gum, the bony part of your jaw that holds your teeth, that was shattered sort of from his incisor all the way past his canine and sort of pushed up. Two of the teeth were still there, and the third tooth, nobody ever found.”

Hamhuis on what he went through:

This injury was unique to any other injury I’ve had, and I’ve had a few bad ones. I broke my leg when I was a kid in minor hockey, I’ve had some concussions, and I tore a muscle last year, but nothing compared to this.

This was one where for the first ten days I wasn’t thinking about hockey. I was thinking about family and life. Just the trauma of the injury was so different.”

At the end of his first game back after missing 21, Hamhuis was plus-10 in corsi, behind only Edler and Tanev.

But this is also why Willie is not the guy who should be in charge once change has finally come in Vancouver.

BONUS: Got Stamkos?

There was some good stuff from Kurtenblog radio earlier Saturday.

They talked about some stories they heard while in Nashville for the All Star Game. Of interest to Canucks fans – one prominent NHL reporter is convinced the Canucks will take a run at Steven Stamkos this summer, they said.

With Elliotte Friedman mentioning this on HNIC a few weeks ago, I have a feeling it’s his rumour. I mentioned it in the SixPack when he said it too, because Friedman wouldn’t have dropped that unless it was coming from somewhere.

So let that thought keep you warm at night, Canucks fans. And if that doesn’t work…